


Wonderland

by FireflysLove



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Pre-Captain America: The First Avenger, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 15:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,112
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6961801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireflysLove/pseuds/FireflysLove
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A paradigm shift in the lives of two young men in a hot Brooklyn July.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wonderland

**Author's Note:**

> So this appeared out of nowhere. A balm for all my CW feels, I guess.

It was a bright hot day in the summer of 1935, a few days after Steve’s seventeenth birthday. His ma was at work, and he had nothing better to do than drawing the street outside his window. He wasn’t wearing much more than a pair of boxers, too damn hot for that. His forehead rested against the glass of the window, seeking some kind of relief from the heat, but the glass warmed quickly under his skin, and the effort was futile.

Eventually he put the sketchbook away and leaned back, closing his eyes against the heat. It wasn’t a humid day, thank god, that would be hell on his lungs. But still, it was hot. The iceman hadn’t delivered in weeks, no money to pay him meant no ice. Bucky had offered more than once to let Steve and his ma have some of his ice, but they had both refused.

At some point, Steve must have dropped off, because the next thing he knew, a hand was shaking him awake.

“You’re going to get a stiff neck if you sleep like that,” Bucky admonished.

Steve pulled a face at him, but the muscles in his neck agreed with Bucky.

“Wha’time’s it?” Steve muttered

“Quarter to five,” Bucky replied. “When’s your ma get off?”

“Midnight,” Steve said. “But she said she migh’ take a double shift if they offered.”

“Course she would,” Bucky said. “’s not like you don’t come by that honestly.”

“Shut up,” Steve said. He stood up and started toward the kitchen. Bucky followed him, dropping laconically into one of the rickety kitchen chairs.

“I was going out tonight, but Betsy cancelled on me,” he said.

“She was too good for you anyway,” Steve said over his shoulder as he got a glass and filled it with water.

“Yeah, you’re prob’ly right,” Bucky said. “Seems the only one who can put up with me these days is you.”

Steve started to say something snarky, but the look on Bucky’s face stopped him. He’d seen the look before, wide eyes, a happy grin. He’d seen it a thousand times before. But never directed at him.

“I… yeah,” Steve finally said lamely.

The look faded from Bucky’s face, replaced by something else. Steve’s stomach flipped over on itself. He had known for a long time how he felt about Bucky. It was just the way things were. Grass was green, the sky was blue, Brooklyn in July was hot, and Steve Rogers loved Bucky Barnes. But… he’d never actually stopped to consider what it meant.

He had few illusions of how his life was going to go. He would be dead before thirty if every doctor he’d ever seen was right. Some of them thought it was a damn miracle he had lived as long as he had. Bucky was going to get married to a nice dame, settle down, have a few kids. Steve would still see him now and then, but Bucky was meant for a normal life. Sure, he spent his adolescent years being a playboy, at least by reputation, but he’d grow out of it. And Steve… Steve would be left behind, pining for what he could never have.

In the neighborhood that they lived in it wasn’t unusual for two men to be together. Steve had long ago come to an agreement with himself and God that it was just fine in His eyes that Steve got hot under the collar for guys _and_ gals. But that was for Steve. He’d never told anyone, although he expected that his ma knew. And as long as he could remember, he had been in love with Bucky. But the way Bucky had just looked at him. That look was usually directed at his sisters, for all their annoying habits, Bucky still loved them more than most anything in the world. Sometimes that look was directed at a dame Bucky was particularly taken with. But… why was Bucky looking at _Steve_ like that?

“Steve?” Bucky said, interrupting Steve’s rumination.

“Huh?” Steve asked stupidly.

“You have any plans tonight?” Bucky asked.

“’Course not,” Steve said.

“Mind if I stay over?” Bucky says.

“Only got the one bed now,” Steve warned. They had finally had to get rid of the other one when it collapsed under the weight of a basket of laundry.

“It’ll be like when we were kids,” Bucky said, a smile lighting up his face.

It’ll be nothing like when they were kids.

They passed the night listening to the radio while Bucky tried unsuccessfully to teach Steve how to play poker. Steve, as it turned out, had absolutely no poker face. It was still stiflingly hot when they went to bed, and both of them were stripped to just their underwear as they squeezed into the narrow cot. Steve angled himself away from Bucky, hoping he wouldn’t notice. He did, apparently, because he tugged Steve in by the hips to spoon against him.

“Why you always pretending?” Bucky finally asked softly. “Like I don’t see the way you look at me. Like I don’t feel the same way too.”

Steve froze.

“I…” he said.

“Don’t,” Bucky interrupted. “Don’t fuckin’ deny it.”

“Buck,” Steve whimpered.

“I know,” Bucky said, and suddenly Steve was facing him, not entirely certain who had turned who over. “I figured it out a while ago. Always seemed inevitable.”

“You… why didn’t you say something?” Steve asked.

“I’m sayin’ something now,” Bucky said, his fingers rising to gently push hair that fell across Steve’s face back behind his ear.

“What’re you sayin’?” Steve asked.

“I think you know,” Bucky replied.

“Bucky,” Steve said.

Bucky said nothing, merely gazing at Steve for a long moment before closing the distance between them and softly pressing their lips together. Steve melted under him, eyes fluttering shut as his lips moved softly against Bucky’s.

They lay there for what seemed like an eternity, softly exchanging kisses, until Steve finally said, “’S gonna be like this from now on?”

Bucky smiled against him. “Yeah, ‘s gonna be like this from now on. Unless you don’t want to…”

“God no. Buck, no. You’re…everything,” Steve said.

“That’s a dangerous way of thinking,” Bucky said. “But… hell, you never did take the safe route. ‘S why I love you.”

“Love you too,” Steve said sleepily. He yawned widely, and Bucky pulled him closer into his chest.

“Sleep, Stevie,” Bucky said. “I’ll still be here in the morning.”

Steve fell asleep to the soft sounds of the city outside the window, the susurrus of the curtains in the faint breeze, and right next to his ear, the beating of Bucky’s heart.

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](fireflyslove.tumblr.com).


End file.
